Ratings are based
on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating.

Heidi Craig

Sceptile
Modified 2.5/5
This is a good supporting combo card but the attack is weak.
Pokemon Power Energy Trans is very useful in grass decks only.
This allows grass energy in play to be moved around. There are
several reasons why this Pokemon Power is very effective. If you
played grass energy on any Pokemon you really don't intend to use
anymore, you can simply move it to the one you want it on. Once
your hitter comes into play it can easily have the energy it needs
to do the powerful attacks. If your main Pokemon is almost
knocked out you can move the energy to another Pokemon use Pokemon
Nurse, healing all the damage without losing your energy. It is a
great combo card with the other Sceptile. The attack on this card
is weak I would try not to relay on this attack unless your in a
jam.

Unlimited
1/5
Good luck having any energy to move around. The attack is weak
for this format so it would be an easy KO for your opponent
without doing much damage if any.

Draft 1/5
It could go either way, depending on the type of deck you are able
to build. For a third stage Pokemon it seems weak in this format.
It would limit the types of Pokemon you could use to make the
Pokemon Power effective and I'm not a big fan of the powerful
attacks to be flip based only. With the right cards it could work
in draft decks.

Hedge

Sceptile (Non-holo RS)

This card OWNZ. I don’t CARE
what ANYBODY says. It pwnz BIG TIME!

This card is the core of the
scepticenter deck, where it ownz all even more lol.

Sceptile, 2 rainbow, 2 grass, zap it
back and forth from the three legendary birds (Skyridge versions)
and nurse periodically, oh, it’s nearly unbeatable. Often times
opponent’s are either leaving because the game is taking so long,
or they are crying in frustration after you just nursed 70 off a
bird. Plus, with my lucky flips (knock on wood) I will get two
heads in a row for ten turns if he is my last fighter (which has
happened ~_^) The power is great; the ability to move around
energy at will may not seem so spectacular to a newbie, but if you
use it in a game you will see it’s power. It used to be venusaur……
but you know what, a lot of old school players are gonna kill me,
but I actually say use this instead of venusaur. This is why:
Resistance to water. Blastoise is still popular in unlimited if
you can believe it. And with this and Zapdos in your deck, you
might have a chance against it. But I have to say that you are
Stupid with a capital ‘S’ if you play scepticenter in unlimited.
The fact that you would even play a stage two in unlimited that is
not Blastoise, Meganium, or any evolution save Slowking for that
matter, is pretty crazy. However, if you must do a stage two
that’s a damage healer, at least do Alakazam…………… Anyway, back to
Sceptile.

Unlimited: 3/5 – Well, I
wrote a lot about unlimited above, so re-read that. ☺

Modified: 4/5 – This card
bombs here. This is mainly a stage two dominated format, the
rulers being Gardevoir/Gardevoir ex, Omastar, Aggron ex, this and
the other Sceptile, Cradily (~_^), and others, which means that
it’s slowness won’t bother you as much here because your opponent
will be nearly as slow as you are. I love this card here.

2 on 2: 4/5 – Same…….. -_-

Draft: 3/5 – Slow, and a
stage two….. gg if you get it up.

~ Happy Trails, Coolhedgie

Bullados

Sceptile

Attributes:
Good HP. 100 is about normal for S2s, so don't squander it. Fire
weakness is always bad. There is always a good Big Fire deck out
there somewhere. Water resistance is something that'll always be
new on me, and it's an extremely good attribute to have. Blastoise,
G8r, and now, Swampert, there has always been a good water deck.
Three retreat is just plain bad. For the life of me, I can't
figure out why he got this retreat. In the game, he is extremely
fast for a grass Pokemon. Either way, don't pay this. Switch is to
be used here.

PokePOWER: "Energy Trans"
Lookin for your Venusaur replacement? Here it is. This particular
power has always been good, just because there's always been
Pokemon Center and Pokemon Nurse. You can abuse these two cards
with this POWER. Even after 5 years, it's still good.

Attack: "Tail Rap"
IMO, this is an upgrade over the original Venusaur. It costs less
energy, and does on average the same as Venusaur.

Ratings:
Unlimited: It's either this or Venusaur. I think this is a little
better, just because of the attack. However, evolution decks
rarely do well here, and for this card to be effective, there
needs to be a ton of energy on the field. ER prone = extremely
bad. 1.5/5

Modified: Since LC rotated out, he doesn't have as much
competition from Venusaur. He's a support Poke mostly, so he
doesn't edge out any other Grass Pokes either. Good combo here:
Sceptile, Venusaur (EXP, Harvest), and Exeggutor (doesn't matter).
Sceptile and Venusaur as support, Exeggutor to either take out the
bench (Grass) or destroy the active (Psychic). Very good support
card. 3.75/5

Limited: I actually like this card here. Not because of the POWER,
which is good and allows you to play less energy, but because the
attack is fairly decent. Not quite a first pick, just something to
take if there's nothing else in the pack. 3.5/5

~Bullados

Ralphy

Ralphy-
Decent card, a little weird though. This card is more or less
Venusaur with a different name. Venusaur stopped working as a deck
years ago.

Unlimited- I could see running a Scepcenter deck instead of a
Venucenter deck. Even though Sceptile's attack will average 10
less damage, your getting it for possibly two less energy cards.
50 x 2 for a grass and two colorless. Toss in a Meganium and you
have a deck that could work, or it could get ripped to pieces by
Lass, ER, Slowking, and even Fossil Magmar could take this deck
on. Resistance tp Blastoise and the likes is nice though. In
short, I would rather play Sceptile than Venussuar, but I wouldn't
want to play Venusuar in Unlimited to begin with. 3/5 here.

Modified- There are positives and negatives in Modified. To start
off with there are no Pokemon Centers or Meganium's with Wild
Growth Pokemon Powers so this deck lot's it's best, and most
powerful combos. Also, Fire always has a strong showing in
Modified and most of the Big Fire Pokes can take Sceptile out in
one shot very easily. Resistance to water saves you from things
like 'Gatr, Poliwrath, 'Tops Ex, and Wailords. Those are some
powerful decks, and this card shuts them down almost completely.
Most if not all of the card mentioned above are weak to Sceptile
and Sceptile resists them. Those two things combined can be though
to stop. I'm going to give a 3.25/5 in Modified.

Limited- Being a Stage two in bad, but not as bad as it used to be
because in drafts with the newer sets, there is a good chance that
half of the decks are going to contain them. It's not like in Base
when the best cards were basics and you were a fool to draft a
Stage 2. Now the best cards are Stage 2's. Anyway, having any
resistance is nice, and the attack is reasonably draft friendly.
The power is also nice to reuse energy. Retreat your active before
it gets KO'ed and then put the energy left on that Pokemon on to
another one. Nice energy economy. 3.5/5

Patriarch

Now, today we're reviewing the new Venusaur: Sceptile from
Ruby/Sapphire! Can energy trans fight back in the new modified?
Read on, meh friends, read on...

Unlimited (2/5): Stage 2's, while still playable, are a load of
worries getting out. In this arena, the attack and power don't
necessarily put you into a winning position, either.

Modified (4/5): Unlike open, E-on is a completely different case.
The ability to juggle around your energy will be a useful weapon
late-game, and combined with the holographic Sceptile, you can put
yourself into a VERY good situation! The attack, Tail Wrap, may
prove as an economy punch by dealing an average of 50 for 3 (or
for weakness, 100 for 3! Good against Gardevoir ex, mind you).
Just watch out for big fire: one tiny hit from a Blaziken will put
you out, most likely for good.

Limited (4.5/5): If this guy gets out, he'll be a BEAST! The
factors that made him decent in unlimited, and good in modified,
make him GREAT in drafting. The bottom stats, resistence to water
and retreat of 2, are also a nice way to round a big, fat card
out.

Before I say peace out, I want to say something. A while's back, I
ran into a cool site called www.marriland.com, and it has a
plethora of information on the TCG! So go there, and become a
forum frequenter...you know you want to ;P

~Patriarch

pERfeCt0nE

Dusclops

If a pokemon runs through the rooms with scissors in his hand,
causing an accident, his spirit becomes a duclops... @_@

Unlimited- Sneasel is his lord and master. Only 1 heads out of the
6 is needed to kill this poor guy!
rating--- 1

Modified- I don't think that random curse is strong enough to
allow it to be of any trouble to Gardevoir decks or most others
for that matter! Judgement is too flippy to use in this format
either... or any format really =/.
rating--- 2

Draft- Being a stage 1 who evolves from a choice of 2 commons, is
really easy to use. I remember I drafted 2 of each duskull and a
dusclops. Although I only put 3 duskulls in, its the fact of the
matter, that duskulls are easy to get. Judgement is a last resort,
or a way around absorbing or stalling moves. Basically use random
curse though =).
rating--- 3.875

2 vs. 2- Well this guy is definitely a good finisher here. I've
seen this used with slaking/memory berry once in a casual match.
The guy first used his Mem. berry for slack off, and then starting
using Judgement on hitters. Once he was out of the picture,
slaking took a share of prizes, and eventually he used critical
move/random curse alternately every chance possible to KO a hitter
and move the excess damage to set up slaking to OHKO the next one.
There are good decks for him to fit into, but being psychic- you
may want to stick with Gardevoir if anything =/.
rating--- 2.75

Multiplayer- Since Judgement will scare your opponents into trying
to kill him first. Build your decks to take advantage of that.
Perhaps using Dusclops/Wynaut/Wobuffet and your ally using
Salamence (DRAGON- HOLO) would work well. Use wynaut to support
you OR you allys evolution. With Salamence's free gust of
wind-like poke-power, Judgement can be set-up very well. Try your
combinations and read spoilers.
rating--- 3

Otaku

Name: Sceptile

Type: Grass

Stage: 2 (evolves
from Grovyle)

HP: 100

Weakness: Fire

Resistance: Water

Retreat: CCC

Poké-POWER: Energy
Trans

As often as you like during your turn
(before you attack), move a (G) Energy card attached to 1
of your Pokémon to another of your Pokémon. This power can’t be
used if Sceptile is affected by a Special Condition

Attack#1: (GCC) Tail
Rap [50x]

Flip 2 coins. This attack does 50
damage times the number of heads.

Name: Grovyle

Type: Grass

Stage: 1 (evolves
from Treecko)

HP: 70

Weakness: Fire

Resistance: Water

Retreat: C

Attack#1: (CC) Poison
Breath

The Defending Pokémon is now Poisoned.

Attack#2: (GCC) Swift
[30]

This attack’s damage isn’t affected by
Weakness, Resistance, Poké-Body, Poké-Power, or any other affects
on the Defending Pokémon.

Name: Grovyle

Type: Grass

Stage: 1 (evolves
from Treecko)

HP: 80

Weakness: Fire

Resistance: Water

Retreat: C

Poké-BODY: Natural
Cure

When you attach a (G) Energy card from
your hand to Grovyle, remove all Special Conditions from Grovyle.

Attack#1: (CC) Slash
20

Name: Treecko

Type: Grass

Stage: Basic

HP: 40

Weakness: Fire

Resistance: Water

Retreat: C

Attack#1: (G) Poison
Breath

Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending
Pokémon is now Poisoned.

Name: Treecko

Type: Grass

Stage: Basic

HP: 40

Weakness: Fire

Resistance: Water

Retreat: C

Attack#1: (C) Tail
Slap [10]

Attack#2: (GC) Razor
Leaf [20]

Name: Sceptile

Type: Grass

Stage: 2 (evolves
from Grovyle)

HP: 120

Weakness: Fire

Resistance: Water

Retreat: CCC

Attack#1: (C) Lizard
Poison [20]

If 1 Energy is attached to Sceptile,
the Defending Pokémon is now Asleep. If 2 Energy is attached to
Sceptile, the Defending Pokémon is now Poisoned. If 3 Energy is
attached to Sceptile, the Defending Pokémon is now Asleep and
Poisoned. If 4 or more energy is attached to Sceptile, the
Defending Pokémon is now Asleep, Burned, and Poisoned.

Attack#2: (GGCCC)
Solar Beam [70]

Hmmm… *Otaku takes a Base Set
Venusaur, activates De-Fusion. Otaku now has one of each Sceptile.*
Who knew TPC played Yu-Gi-Oh? ;) We are looking at the top
Sceptile on my list, but all the rest go with it and will be
important later on.

Attributes:
For those of you not used to my review style, I cover the less
dynamic elements of a card first (basically everything but
attacks, Poké-Body, Poké-Power, and Pokémon Powers) in this
section. To start off, let’s look at its name: being a Sceptile
means that it only has one current form of direct competition: the
Holo-Rare EX Ruby/Sapphire Sceptile. We’ll look at how they
compare in each category, then decide if this was a good or a bad
thing. This is a Grass Pokémon (like the other Sceptile), which
is more or less a “neutral” trait-there are many Grass weak
Pokémon, but so far only Metal Pokémon have any resistance to
them. That being said, going against a Metal Pokémon with real
Metal Energy attached is nasty. The HP for this card is 100: more
or less expected for a Stage 2 anymore. Without being a
dual-weakness Pokémon ex, you could only have another 20. The
other Sceptile wins out here, having that 120 HP. Next up we come
to Weakness: Fire. This is a very common weakness for
Grass-Types, and it is more or less expected. No weakness is the
only good weakness, and Fire is fairly common in Modified right
now, so be wary of it. Next up is Resistance, and we actually
have one again! Sceptile is Water Resistant, which is a more
recent resistance, and is, like all resistances, useful. Last, we
come to retreat: three energy. This is a bit much. First, most
recent 100HP Pokémon have a retreat of 2, one less than this.
Second, 2 is the highest Retreat cost you can have before
retreating becomes too difficult to budget. So let us hope that
this is balancing out some other part of the card… The other
Sceptile has the same bottom stats, so they are of course equal
there.

Before moving on, since Sceptile is a
Stage 2, let me a) remind you that we will need to see some
“bonuses” to help it compete with basics and Stage 1 Pokémon and
b) examine what we should evolve it from. =P

I would go with the “Natural Cure”
Grovyle, since Special Conditions can be nasty, but primarily for
the 10 more HP. The 70 HP version can Poison, but it is
over-priced for a basic, so on an Evolution card, it’s even
worse. Swift could be useful, but that lack of applying Weakness
can haunt you early game (where you could be racking up Grass Weak
OHKOs). Still, if Metl Pokémon are common, it might be a good
back up. Both have Fire Weakness, Water Resistance, and nice
retreats of only 1. As for the Treecko, I would go with the
Treecko that has two attacks: Razor Leaf is slightly over-priced,
but not as badly as Poison Breath. Given that is has mere 40 HP,
and the fact that the Sceptile we are looking at is not too energy
dependent, I think your best bet would be to wait until turn 2 or
later, then drop a Treecko and Rare Candy to Sceptile.

Abilities: One
of the “classic” Pokémon Powers is revived as a Poké-Power (which
is sub-division of Pokémon Powers). Energy Trans can be mighty
useful, and makes possible some sick combos, which I will detail
later. The attack, Tail Rap, is flippy but hard hitting. Also,
note that GCC for 50 is discounted (GCC yields 35 damage, but the
attack averages 50).

All in all, this compares well with
its Holo-Rare brethren: not as great an attacker, but it has some
tricks to it…

Uses/Combinations:
There are two good uses for this Pokémon: TecHing it into a deck
with the other Sceptile, or using it as a main focus in a deck (in
which case TecH the Holo-Rare Sceptile with it ;) ). Energy Trans
made Venusaur almost viable in Unlimited, and it still has
a mess of tricks for Modified. First off, it allows you to get
away with less energy-if something is about to die, rip away its
energy and put it on what will become your new attacker. Second
is moving the energy from one Pokémon to another, and healing the
“naked” one with Pokémon Nurse, then returning the energy you took
so it can go back to attacking. Third is manipulating energy
counts (sometimes it matters, like for Holo-Rare Sceptile’s Lizard
Poison or Aquapolis Muk). Let’s not forget the joy of the
off-color Fire Cleaner. What do I mean? You have your seemingly
normal mono-Grass deck. Then when the time is right, plunk down a
Numel, Rare Candy to Camerupt, and load up enough energy to keep
it going until you draw your last prize.

*notices people snickering*

What, think it won’t work? You just
need to keep the few fire cards in hand… ooooh, you wanna know how
it will work with Camerupt needing two Fire Energy, but Energy
Trans only affecting Grass? Unless Nintendo changes it, Energy
Trans can affect Grass Energy, no matter what is providing it.

Q. If Mewtwo "Energy Absorbs" a Rainbow Energy and then
Venusaur "Energy Trans" it, does the receiving Pokémon take
damage?
A. Nope, it only does the damage when you play the card from your
hand. (June 22, 2000 WotC Chat, Q72)

* If a card
gives off Energy of any type then that card COUNTS as an Energy
card of that type. This means a Buzzap'd Electrode that was chosen
to give 2 Grass Energy COUNTS as a Grass Energy Card and can be
Energy Transferred by Venusaur's Pokémon Power. As a further
example, Energy attached to Ditto COUNTS as all basic Energy types
at once. So any Energy type attached to Ditto could ALSO be Energy
Transferred by Venusaur's Pokémon Power. (Mar 30, 2000 WotC Chat)

So you should be able to Energy Trans a Crystal (provided there is
a Grass energy attached when your try it), Multi, or Rainbow
Energy to your new Camerupt, as well as a heaping helping of Grass
Energy. Just remember that if you use Crystal or Multi Energy for
one of the Fire, a real Fire Energy will still be needed. I
included the Mewtwo ruling to remind/prove to you that rainbow’s
damage placement only triggers when it comes from the hand.

Ratings

Unlimited: 3/5-I
think it might make a fun rogue deck. Sceptile Center? You can
have fun keeping energy spread out (and thus harder to remove)
until you are ready for a big attacker (and No Removal or Chaos
Gym can help protect the energy too). Energy Trans Sceptile
itself can use a DCE for a surprise attack: slap a Grass on a
Cleffa, Eeeeeeek, then drop a Treecko, Rare Candy to Sceptile
(really? ;) ), then Trans the Grass back to Sceptile, drop a DCE,
and see if you can OHKO that Sneasel. While it might be fun, it
probably won’t win a lot.

Modified:
3.75/5-Sceptile is mainly waiting on two things: the right deck
and people to start diversifying. If you fail to steam roll it
early on, prepare for a loooooong fight. Hmmmm… Fluff Jumpluf
with this and Pokémon Nurse could be more efficient and nearly
immortal…

2-on-2: 4/5-use
almost he same energy for two Pokémon. :-P Whatver guy you want
attacking loads up while the other just chills and maybe gets
attended to by a Nurse. ;)

Limited: 3.5/5-it’s a
nice sized Pokémon that can be splashed with a little care (it
just need one Grass to attack, as does my preferred Treecko/Grovyle),
though its Poké-Power becomes next to useless then. In a real
grass deck, it will let you make use of little energy. It’s the
Grovyles that make it nice though: they are fairly sturdy for
Limited play (Swift gets around some annoying effects, while the
other is nearly immune to Special Conditions).

-Otaku

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